'We are going to be able to see the big picture of exoplanet atmospheres.'
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has provided a detailed molecular and chemical profile of a distant exoplanet's skies in a world first,The planet — an exoplanet as it is located outside of our solar system — isHowever, the new observations from James Webb reveal the makeup of the exoplanet's atmosphere like never before and reveal further details of active chemistry and clouds.
The discoveries are detailed in five new scientific papers, two of which are still under review. One of these papers outlines the world-first detection of sulfur dioxide in an exoplanet atmosphere. The SO2 molecules are produced by chemical reactions triggered by high-energy light from the planet's host star in a similar fashion to the ozone layer on Earth.
"This is the first time we see concrete evidence of photochemistry – chemical reactions initiated by energetic stellar light – on exoplanets," added Shang-Min Tsai, a researcher at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and lead author of the paper explaining the origin of sulfur dioxide in WASP-39 b’s atmosphere. "I see this as a really promising outlook for advancing our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres with [this mission].
Different chemicals in the atmosphere absorb different colors of the starlight spectrum, allowing astronomers to determine which molecules are present. As NASA explains in its blog post, James Webb's infrared observation instruments will enable the observatory to "pick up chemical fingerprints that can’t be detected in visible light."
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